Wringer



Aug. 12, 1952 D. K. FERRIS WRINGER Filed June 26, 1944 m we 5 2 SHEETSSHEET l Inn 30 D. K. FERRIS Aug. 12, 1952 WRINGER 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2 Filed June 26, 1944 Patented Aug. 12, 1952 WRIN GER Donald K. Ferris, Dayton, Ohio, assignor to General Motors Corporation, Dayton, Ohio, a corporation of Delaware Application June 26, 1944, Serial No. 542,169

This invention relates to clothes wringers such as are used in connection with washing machines.

It is an object of my invention to provide a clothes wringer with a simple and less expensive type of wringer control which is easier, more rapid, and simpler to operate and yet provides greater safety. 7

It is another object of my invention to provide a clothes wringer with a simple indexing arrangement requiring only the forcible rotation of the wringer from one station'to another to index the wringer as well as to prevent rotation of the rolls Cllll'lllg indexing, to prevent automatic restarting of the wringer rolls after inflexing, and also to stop the-rotation of the rolls upon an overload or by the instinctive reaction of an operator when an accident occurs.

Briefly these objects are attained by providing a swinging wringer in which a cam arrangement normally holds the-wringer in any one of the selective indexing stations. When the wringer is moved from one indexing station to another, the cam arrangement moves the manual control device from either a forward or reverse driving position to the neutral position in which it remains after the newly'selected indexing station isreached. The torque reaction of the verti-cal drive shaft will tend to swing the wringer on its axis and if the rotation of the rolls should be stopped or become difficult, the wringer will swing to cause operation of the cam arrangement to throw the control mechanism to the neutral position. In case of an accident not involving the application of a heavy drag on the rolls there will normally be an instinctive reaction by the person attending the wringer to either push or pull the wringer which will cause it to swin and operate the cam arrangement to move the control to the neutral position.

Further objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings wherein a preferred form of the present invention is clearly shown.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a portion of'a washing machine provided with a clothes wring'er showing the wringer in normal operation position; l I

Fig. 2 is a perspective view similar to Fig. 1 showing the wringer between indexing stations;

Fig. 3.is a sectional viewjtaken along the line 3--3 of Fig. 4, showing the drive gearing in the wringer head; V

' 4 Claims. (01. 68-255) 2 V Fig. 4 is a sectional view taken al mg the line 4.4 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary sectional view through the upper pinion and crown gears;

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary sectional view taken along the line 6-6 of Fig. 3;

Fig. lis a fragmentary sectional view taken transversely through the lower portion of the operating bars 82 and Fig. 8 is afragmentary sectional view taken throughthe projection 89.

Referring to the drawings, there is shown the tub 29 of a washing machine at the side of which is fastened a vertical wringer post 22 containing a vertical drive shaft 24, normally driven by an electric motor beneath the tub 28. At the upper end of the post 22 there is provided a flange 25 beneath which there is a bracket 28 fastening the upper portion of the post 22 to the tub 20. Rotatably mounted upon a sleeve extending upwardly from the flange 26 at the upper end of the post 22 is a wringer head 30 including a lower cylindrical portion 32 provided with a flange 34 immediately above the flange 26 at the top of the post 22. Above the cylindrical portion 32, the wringer head 30 is provided with a rectangularshaped gear box 35 containing the forward drivin pinion 38 and the reverse driving pinion 49, each of which is continuously in mesh with the crown gear 42 which connects through the bearing portion 44 to the lower roll of the wringer. The upper roll of the wringer may be driven from the lower roll as is conventional. The remaining portions of the wringer may be like those shown in the Kauifman Patent 2,216,745, patented October 8, 1940.

The drive pinions 38 and 40 are rotatably mounted upon the drive shaft 46 which preferably connects to the drive shaft 24 through a simple clutch mechanismtt. The drive shaft 46 is rotatably supported and prevented. from moving axially by bearings at the top of the gear box 36. For this purpose the upper end of the drive shaft 46 is reduced in size and the shoulder so formed is held against the thrust bearin surface H1 by a washer HI held in place by a nut H3 at the top of the shaft. The gear box 36 is normally nearly filled with grease for lubrieating purposes.- Considerable diificulty is often encountered in properly lubricating these upper bearing surfaces. For'this purposebetween the teeth of the gear 50 I drill a lubricating passage H5 which extends to the thrust bearing surface I I1 in the topof the gear box.

By this arrangement as the crown gear 42 rotates, it picks up grease between its teeth and when this grease passes between the contacting portions of the gears 40 and 42 it is squeezed. When the lubricant passage H5 comes by the meshing point of these gears, the grease is squeezed and forced under pressure through the lubricant passage H5 to the thrust bearing surface Ill and also to the bearing provided by the reduced upper portion of the shaft 46. Inasmuch as there is quite a heavy pressure upon the thrust bearing II! as well as the bearin provided by the reduced portion of the shaft 46, this lubricating feature is very important. While some other means of lubricating this bearing might be used, the extreme simplicty of this scheme of pressure lubrication recommends itself. The crown gear 42 is similarly provided with a lubricant passage H9, while pinion 38 is provided with a lubricant passage l2| which performs in the same manner.

The pinions 38 and 49 are provided with clutch teeth for engagement with complementary clutch teeth provided upon the opposite ends of the clutch collar 50 which is splined to the drive shaft 46. This clutch collar 50 is normally held in its middle or neutral non-driving position by the roller 52 which rides in a deep groove in the middle of the collar 50. This roller 52 is rotatably mounted upon a lever 54 pivoted upon a pin 56, extending from the wall ofthegear casing or box 36. At its opposite end thelever 54 is provided with a notch 58 which receives a roller 66 mounted upon the end of a simple cantilever spring 62 which is fastened at its opposite end to a portion of'the gear casing or box 36. This 1 arrangement normally holds the clutch collar 59 in the neutral position unless it is forcibly moved to either of the driving positions.

Above the notch 58 there is provided a notch 64 for reverse driving of the rolls. The lever 54 is moved into either the forward or reverse positions by a pin which engages a slot in the lever 54. This pin protrudes from a stub shaft 12 rotatably mounted in the end wall of the gear casing 36 and connected to an operating shaft 14 provided. with an operating handle 16 at its outer end. When the handle 16 is in its vertical position,'the lever 54 and the clutch collar 50 are in their neutral positions. If the handle 16 is moved to the left as shown in Fig; 1, the lever 54 is moved downwardly until the roller 60 rides into the notch 64, thus resiliently latching the clutch collar 50 in engagement with the reverse pinion 38. If the handle 16 is moved to the right, the pin 10 will lift the lever 54 until the roller 60 rides into the notch 66 thereby resiliently latching the clutch collar 50 into engagement with the forward driving pinion 49.

In order to hold the wringer on any one of a plurality of selective indexing stations I provide a series of conically shaped depressions or notches 18 in the upper face of the flange 26. Cooperating with these notches is a round nosed conical shaped projection 80 protruding from the lower face of the flange 34 into one of the depressions 18 in Fig. 1. In Fig. 2 this projection 80 is shown at the edge of one of the notches 18. The projection 80 and the notches 18 should be so shaped as to provide just the desired amount of resistance to the swinging movement of the wringer to permit normal wringing, yet should present insufficient opposition to the swinging of the wringer in the event that should unusual opposition to the turning of the wringer rolls be encountered. In such an event the projection 80 will be cammed out of one of the depressions 18 by a rotational movement which will move the wringer and wringer head from the position shown in Fig. 1 to the position shown in Fig. 2 where the projection 80 is shown at the edge of one of the projections 18. By so doing flange 34 as well as the entire wringer head and the entire wringer is' lifted relative to the flange 26 on the vertical wringer base 22. Inasmuch as the shaft 46 is carried upwardly with the wringer head 30, it will separate and disconnect the clutch 48 thereby stopping the rotation of the wringer rolls.

Such a construction is satisfactory from many standpoints but it has the difficulty that when the wringer reaches a new indexing station, the projection 80 will enter the depression or notch 18 at the new indexing station allowing the wringer head 30 as well as the entire wringer to drop to its normal position thereby re-engaging the clutch 48 and causing the rolls to be turned. In the event that some dangerous condition has caused the stoppage of the wringer, the restarting of the rolls would be likely to cause serious injury to the operator or further damage to the clothes.

According to my invention I provide a separate operating bar 82 which moves the operating handlelfi from either of the driving positions to the neutral position whenever the wringer is moved so as to cause the projection 89 to be cammed out of one of the notches 18. This operating bar 82 is slidably mounted upon the screw 84 and the support 86. At its lower end it is provided with an inwardly bent tongue 88 which extends beneath the flange 26, but above the bracket 28 which prevents its downward movement. This flange 26 incidentally is provided with a notch 96 for allowing the wringer head 30 with the operating bar 82 to be removed from its position on the vertical post 22. The upper end of the operating bar is slotted so as to receive the operating shaft 14. The two upper ends of the operating bar 62 are bent inwardly at an angle to form the projections 92 and 94. Cooperating with these projections 92 and 94 is a projection 96 extending across the outer face of the stub shaft 12. This projection 96 is in a horizontal position when the clutch collar 50 is in the neutralposition, but is turned at an angle of about 30 degrees or 40 degrees when the operating handle 16 is moved into either of its driving positions as illustrated in Fig. 1.

When the projection 80 is cammed out of one of the notches 18 by a rotation of the wringer and wringer head, the operating bar 82 is prevented from moving vertically with the projection 80 and the wringer head 30 by the tongue 88 which extends beneath the flange 26. The wringer head 30 is thereby caused to move relatively to the operating bar 82, thereby causing the in-turned portion of the projection 96 to first come into engagement with one of the projections at the top of the operating bar 82 and then to turn the projection 96 to a horizontal position, thereby moving the clutch collar 59 to its middle or neutral position where it will remain because of the engagement of the roller 60 with the notch 58 in the lever 54.

Thus by this arrangement there is no danger of the resumption of operation of the rolls when the wringer is swung to a new indexing station. With this arrangement it is also possible to eliminate the clutch 48. The clutch 48, in case it is retained, may still serve a useful purpose since it is possible to make it disengage itself before the clutch collar 50 is disengaged, so that the riding of the roller Bil over the hump between the notches can take place after the power is disconnected by the clutch 48. This is particularly helpful in case the wringer is being pushed in the opposite direction to the rotation of the vertical drive shaft in which the torque reaction opposes the pushing of the wringer. To compensate wholly or partially for this torque reaction, the angle on the face of the projection 8i opposing the torque reaction is made steeper than it opposite side and the notches 18 are likewise provided with a mating angle on the side opposing the torque reaction. By providing the projection 89 and the notches 18 with a steeper angle on one side than the other, there is provided an unequal double acting resistance means opposing the rotation of the wringer head 30.

If the weight of the wringer head and wringer provides too great a force holding the projection 80 in one of the notches '18 this may be reduced by providing a compression spring 98 between the lug on the wringer head into which the screw Ed is fastened and a tongue extending from the operating member 82. To accomplish the same purpose the angle of either the notches 78 or the projection 80 may be changed so as to either reduce or increase the camming action relative to a given rotational movement of the wringer.

While the form of embodiment of the invention as herein disclosed, constitutes a preferred form, it is to be understood that other forms might be adopted, as may come within the scope of the claims which follow.

What is claimed is as follows:

1. A wringer comprising a wringer support provided with a drive shaft, a wringer head rotatably mounted on the wringer support, said head being provided with forward and reverse drive mechanism connected to said shaft for driving the wringer rolls, manual control means having an operating member extending from said head for moving the drive mechanism to forward driving, reverse driving and neutral positions, said head and said support each being provided with adjacent flanges, one of said flanges being provided with a plurality of camming notches, a camming member rigid with and extending from one of said flanges to the other into any one of said notches to provide indexing stations corresponding to said notches, and means responsive to a camming action between said camming member and one of said notches for moving said control means from one of its positions to another.

2. A wringer comprising a wringer support member provided with a drive shaft, a wringer head member rotatably mounted on the support member, one of said members being provided with a plurality of camming notches, the other of said members being provided with a camming element adapted to extend into any one of said notches to yieldingly hold the head in any one of a plurality of stations corresponding to said notches, said head being provided with a drive mechanism connected to said shaft for driving the wringer rolls, manual control means having an operating member extending from said head for moving the drive mechanism to and from driving and non-driving positions, said operating member being provided with an operating pro jection, and an arm having one portion for engaging said support member and having a sec- 0nd portion for engaging said projection, said camming notches and camming element being fixed to their respective members so that when said head is rotated from a station the camming element is cammed out of one of the notches to lift the head member and said projection into engagement with said second portion of said arm to move the control means from one position to another.

3. A wringer comprising a wringer support member provided with a drive shaft, a wringer head member rotatably mounted on the support member, one of said members being provided with a plurality of camming notches, the other of said members being provided with a camming element adapted to extend into any one of said notches to yieldingly hold the head in any one of a plurality of stations corresponding to said notches, said head member being provided with a drive mechanism connected to said shaft for driving the wringer rolls, manual control means having an operating member extending from said head member for movingthe drive mechanism to and from driving and non-driving positions, said operating member being provided with an operating projection, and means responsive to the forced camming of said camming element out of one of said notches when the wringer head member is forced to rotate on the support member for engaging and operating said projection to move the control means from one position to another, said notches having a steeper lifting angle on one side than on the opposite side to provide a greater holding action of the camming element in the corresponding stations in one direction of rotation of the head than in the 0pposite direction of rotation of the head.

4. A wringer comprising a wringer support provided with a drive shaft, a wringer head rotatably mounted on the wringer support, said head being provided with forward and reverse drive mechanism connected to said shaft for driving the wringer rolls, manual control means having an operating member extending from said head for moving the drive mechanism to forward driving, reverse driving and neutral positions, said head and said support each being provided with coasting lifting means for normally holding said head at a predetermined indexing station relative to said support, said lifting means being effective to lift said head relative to said support when said head is forced to rotate relative to said support, and a transmission means extending from said support to said operating member for moving said Operating member to move the drive mechanism from either the forward or reverse driving positions to the neutral position in response to the lifting of said head relative to said support.

DONALD K. FERRIS.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,638,312 Barker Aug. 9, 1927 1,684,265 Criner Sept. 11, 1928 1,755,481 Lee Apr. 22, 1930 2,111,586 Frantz et a1. Mar. 22, 1938 2,369,333 Bottinelli Feb. 13, 1945 2,387,086 Moon Oct. 16, 1945 2,388,207 Etten Oct. 30, 1945 2,406,788 Barcus Sept. 3, 1946 

